"forces during the World War II. Meanwhile, the Australian Tank Corps was superseded following the formation of the Australian Armoured Corps in July 1941. In October 1941 two independent light tank squadrons had been formed for service in Malaya; however, neither was deployed due to a lack of vehicles to equip them. In North Africa in 1941, Australian troops were part of the force which captured Tobruk on 22 January as part of Operation Compass, yielding over 25,000 prisoners along with 236 field and medium guns, 23 medium tanks and more than 200 other vehicles. During the capture of the"
"oasis, leaving the Italian garrison dependent on the ""Regia Aeronautica"". Air transport proved insufficient and hunger prompted many of the locally recruited troops to desert. After being reinforced by the 2/9th Australian Battalion and a battery of the 4th Royal Horse Artillery, the Australians attacked Giarabub on 17 March 1941 and the Italian garrison surrendered on 21 March. Giarabub is an oasis in the Libyan Desert, south of Bardia and west of the border with Egypt. The Great Sand Sea of the Sahara Desert lies to the south, and the town is at the west end of salt marshes which"
"and a battery of the 4th Royal Horse Artillery, the Australians attacked on 17 March 1941 and forced the Italian garrison to surrender on 21 March. The war was fought primarily in the Western Desert, which was about wide, from Mersa Matruh in Egypt to Gazala on the Libyan coast, along ""Via Balbia"", the only paved road. The Sand Sea inland marked the southern limit of the desert at its widest at Giarabub and Siwa; in British parlance, ""Western Desert"" came to mean eastern Cyrenaica too. From the coast, extending south lies a raised, flat plain of stony desert about"
"As a result, the Italians were driven back quickly into Cyrenaica, the eastern province of their colonial territory, Libya. The small port of Bardia fell to advancing British, Australian and Indian forces in the WDF under the command of General Sir Richard O'Connor, followed as the new year of 1941 came in, by Tobruk as the Italians retreated along the Via Balbia, the metallised coastal road that led back to Benghazi and Tripoli. This was the top half of a semicircle, the bottom straight line of the semicircle was formed by rough rock-strewn desert, unpromising territory for armoured and mechanised"
"pursued them back towards the Libyan border. In December 1940, the 6th Division was moved forward from training camps around Alexandria to relieve British troops around Bardia and at the end of December they were ordered to prepare to attack. On 3 January 1941, at Bardia, a small coastal town just inside the Libyan border, the first major Australian action of World War II took place. Amidst a heavy artillery barrage and supported by British Matilda tanks and Bren carriers of the divisional cavalry, the 6th Division penetrated the defences of the Italian stronghold. Despite some heavy resistance the town"
"Siege of Giarabub The Siege of Giarabub (now Jaghbub) in Libya, was an engagement between Commonwealth and Italian forces, during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. In the aftermath of , the invasion of Libya by the Italian 10th Army Operation Compass by the Western Desert Force (WDF), the Battle of Sidi Barrani and the pursuit of the 10th Army into Cyrenaica the fortified Italian position at the Al Jaghbub Oasis was besieged by parts of the 6th Australian Division. The 6th Australian Divisional Cavalry Regiment (6th ADCR) began the siege in December 1940 and isolated the"
"the capture of the port at Taranto were considered as early as the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in 1935. In 1940–41, Italian Army operations in North Africa, based in Libya, required a supply line from Italy. The British Army's North African Campaign, based in Egypt, suffered from much greater supply difficulties. Supply convoys to Egypt had to either cross the Mediterranean via Gibraltar and Malta near the coast of Sicily, or steam around the Cape of Good Hope, up the east coast of Africa, and then through the Suez Canal to reach Alexandria. The latter was a very long and"
"Saleh, about north of Ajedabia and south-west of Antelat; the leading elements of the 10th Army arrived thirty minutes later. Next day, the Italians attacked to break through the road block and continued to attack into 7 February. With British reinforcements arriving and the Australians pressing down the road from Benghazi, the 10th Army surrendered. From Benghazi to Agedabia, the British took captured and Italian garrisons held Giarabub south of Sollum, Kufra Oasis, Jalo at the west end of the Great Sand Sea and Murzuk, south of Tripoli. The oasis of Giarabub was attacked in January 1941 and captured in"
"The Rats of Tobruk The Rats of Tobruk is the name given to the soldiers of the garrison that held the Libyan port of Tobruk against the Afrika Corps, during and after the Siege of Tobruk in World War II. The siege started on 10 April 1941 and was relieved at the end of November when Australian forces were withdrawn. The port and its perimeter continued to be held by the Allies until its surrender on 21 June 1942. Between April and August 1941, some 35,000 allies, including around 14,000 Australian soldiers, were besieged in Tobruk by a German–Italian army"
"capture of the El Qaseibieya, well to the south-west fringe of the marshes, the Australians dominated the west end of the area. On 25 December, a reconnaissance in force by C Squadron was met with artillery-fire and air attacks. The following night, a raid on an Italian gun position was forced to withdraw after being detected; one man was captured. On 8 January 1941, a relief convoy was destroyed by the Royal Air Force (RAF) near Giarabub. This was the last Italian attempt to supply the oasis by land, after the defeat of the 10th Army in Operation Compass and"
"fell to the Australians just two days later. The Australians captured a large amount of Italian matériel as well as thousands of Italian prisoners of war (POWs), many of whom were shipped to prison camps in Australia. The fighting continued until 5 January when the Italian position had been cut almost into two. The Allies took nearly 40,000 Italian prisoners and considerable amounts of enemy weapons, supplies and equipment. The battle for Bardia cost 130 Australian lives with 326 men wounded. On 22 January 1941, the Italian held port of Tobruk fell to the AIF and 25,000 Italians became prisoners."
"visit by tourists, known as the Bardia Mural. Bardia Bardia, or El Burdi () is a Mediterranean seaport in the Butnan District of eastern Libya. It is also occasionally called ""Bórdi Slemán"". In Roman times the town was known as Petras Maior. During World War I, German U-boats made several landings in the port of Bardia in support of the Senussi order during their revolt against British and Italian colonial rule. During World War II, it was the site of a major Italian fortification, invested by the XXIII Corps under the command of General Annibale Bergonzoli. On 21 June 1940,"
"Italian prisoners of war in Australia Italian prisoners of war in Australia were Italian soldiers captured by the British and Allied Forces in World War II and taken to Australia. On 10 June 1940, Italy entered the Second World War on the side of Germany. During the course of the war, Great Britain and their allies captured in Ethiopia and North Africa approximately 400,000 Italian troops, who were sent to POW camps all over the world, including Australia. Between 1941 and 1945, Australia received custody of 18,420 Italian POWs. Then, after Italy signed an armistice with the Allies in September"
"April 1941, as Italian and German forces commenced their Siege of Tobruk, the ""Brescia"" Division along with the German 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion captured the port of Bardia, taking several hundred prisoners and a large quantity of booty. But the attack have stalled and Rommel was forced to call for reinforcements. On the night of 30 April, a strong Italo-German force attacks the Tobruk defences again, and the ""Ariete"", ""Brescia"", 8th Bersaglieri Regiment and Guastatori (combat engineers) involved capture seven strongpoints( R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7 and R8). On the night of 3 May, the Australians counterattack but the Italians"
"an accord with Italy, which had occupied Libya from 1911. In April 1923, however, the accord broke down and the Italians seized Ajdabiya, turning it into an important military outpost. The area was the scene of heavy fighting during the Second World War; during Operation Compass, British forces forced Italian troops to retreat through Ajdabiya (February 1941, Battle of Beda Fomm), but soon later they lost control of it again on April 2, 1941, when Rommel's Afrikakorps counter-attacked. The town finally reverted to Allied control on November 23, 1942, when it was recaptured by the British 7th Armoured Division. Ajdabiya's"
"the oasis at Taguira, though no Turkish forces were present. The Italians then sent a garrison to protect the oasis. By December, the three ships were stationed in Tripoli, where they were replaced by the old ironclads ""Italia"" and ""Lepanto"". ""Re Umberto"" and her sisters arrived back in La Spezia, where they had their ammunition and supplies replenished. In May 1912, the Training Division patrolled the coast, but saw no action. The following month, ""Re Umberto"" and her sisters, along with six torpedo boats, escorted a convoy carrying an infantry brigade to Buscheifa, one of the last ports in Libya"
"on 31 March 1941, driving the Australian rearguards back to Mechili; on the 6th the town was surrounded. The ""Fabris"" and ""Montemurro"" Bersaglieri Motorised Battalions came up in support, along with the advance elements of the German 5th Light Division. On 8 April General Michael Gambier-Perry surrendered to Axis forces. In the aftermath of the counter-attack, the elements of the ""Pavia"" division were placed in Sirte area to defend an airfield near the Wādī Thāmit. The bulk of forces has continued an advance to reach the Derna, Libya and Martuba by 22 May 1941. In June, 1941, it started to"
"Battle of Bardia The Battle of Bardia was fought over three days between 3 and 5 January 1941, as part of Operation Compass, the first military operation of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. It was the first battle of the war in which an Australian Army formation took part, the first to be commanded by an Australian general and the first to be planned by an Australian staff. Major General Iven Mackay's 6th Division assaulted the strongly held Italian fortress of Bardia, Libya, assisted by air support and naval gunfire, and under the cover of an"
"Bardia Bardia, or El Burdi () is a Mediterranean seaport in the Butnan District of eastern Libya. It is also occasionally called ""Bórdi Slemán"". In Roman times the town was known as Petras Maior. During World War I, German U-boats made several landings in the port of Bardia in support of the Senussi order during their revolt against British and Italian colonial rule. During World War II, it was the site of a major Italian fortification, invested by the XXIII Corps under the command of General Annibale Bergonzoli. On 21 June 1940, the town was bombarded by the 7th Cruiser"
"Tobruk, finishing at Jaghbub where the Great Sand Sea begins. The construction of the fence was dramatized in the film ""Lion of the Desert"". The Siege of Giarabub was fought between Commonwealth and Italian forces during World War II. Italian and Libyan colonial troops led by Colonel Salvatore Castagna resisted a siege by mostly Australian troops for three months before being forced to surrender on 23 March 1941. The resistance of the Italian troops was celebrated by the fascist regime and used to minimize the military defeat in Cyrenaica. Jaghbub, Libya Jaghbub (, ) is a remote desert village in"
"was considered as marking the boundary between Africa and Asia in Hellenistic geography. It separated the provinces of Aegyptus and Marmarica. In World War II, the engineered route up the escarpment had been destroyed and the pass had great strategic importance. The only ways westwards into Libya were to assault the pass or to out-flank it to the south. After the defeat of the Italian 10th Army on 7 February 1941 during Operation Compass, the Italians were reinforced by German units (Afrika Korps under Erwin Rommel) and the British forces were forced out of Libya, leaving a besieged garrison at"
"landing point for 35,000 Italian soldiers under the command of Carlo Canvey. During World War II, the port, one of the most valuable deep water ports in North Africa, was fortified by 12,000 British and Indian troops and 14,000 Australian troops. Starting in April 1941 and ending in November 1941, German general Erwin Rommel surrounded the port besieging the troops resulting in the Siege of Tobruk. During the 1960s, high viscocity oil from the Sarir field was piped to Tobruk for loading on vessels, because the oil was not safe to load at sea. As a result of the Libyan"
"Rats of Tobruk Memorial The Rats of Tobruk Memorial is on Anzac Parade, the principal ceremonial and memorial avenue of Canberra, Australia. The German siege of the Libyan Mediterranean Sea port town of Tobruk began on 10 April 1941. After desperate fighting, most of the Australian forces were relieved by October 1941. However, the town was continuously contested until the Allied victory at El Alamein in 1942. The Allied defence of Tobruk lengthened German supply lines and diverted troops who might have been deployed against Allied troops elsewhere. This memorial commemorated the endurance of those who were besieged, who were"
"be supported. The defences of Bardia were reminiscent of the defensive structures used in the First World War and British artillery would be much more important than at Nibeiwa. The experience of the attack there was important for the plan to use a combination of shock, firepower, tanks and the mobility of the Infantry tanks to break into the port defences. In 1954, the British official historian I. S. O. Playfair wrote that the attackers took and Libyan prisoners and a large quantity of supplies and water for a British loss of In 1979 the Italian official history gave a"
"Allies captured defence guns, guns, guns, guns, tanks, and Australian losses totalled and Bardia did not become an important port as supply by sea continued to run through Sollum but became an important source of water, after the repair of the large pumping station that the Italians had installed to serve the township and Fort Capuzzo. Axis forces reoccupied the town in April 1941, during Operation Sonnenblume, Rommel's first offensive in Cyrenaica. Further fighting occurred from 31 December 1941 – 2 January 1942, before Bardia was re-taken by the 2nd South African Division. Bardia changed hands again in June 1942,"
"go up to the Egyptian border. Giarabub is the westernmost in a line of oases on the edge of the Sahara into Egypt. In 1940, it was the southernmost Italian frontier post along the border with Egypt. Giarabub had been garrisoned by the Italians since 1925, after being ceded to Libya from Egypt by the British. In 1940, the garrison, commanded by Major Salvatore Castagna, consisted of and soldiers, in four companies of border guards, five of Libyan infantry, a platoon Libyan engineers, an artillery company with fourteen 47 mm Cannone da 47/32 M35, four 80 mm Cannone da 77/28"
"Port of Tobruk The Port of Tobruk () is a port located at Tobruk, Libya. Opened in 1986, it is located in Eastern Libya near the Egyptian border - about east of Benghazi. The entrance to the main channel into the port is between Tobruk point ( ) and the point of Marsa Ummash Shawush. Tobruk was formerly the historic settlement of Antipyrgos, offering a major harbor for the hellenic states. The port has never been systematically surveyed for archeological findings to evaluate the use of the port during this time. During the Italo-Turkish War in 1911, Tobruk was the"
"was granted before the convoy set sail across the Indian Ocean. From there, the convoy berthed at Colombo in Ceylon, where further shore leave was granted while arrangements were made to transfer the battalion to another ship, the ""Nevasa"", for the remainder of the journey to Port Tewfik in Egypt, where it disembarked on 2 February 1941. From there, the battalion moved by rail to Palestine, where the 9th Division was attempting to make good its equipment and training deficiencies while the more experienced divisions – the 6th and 7th Divisions – led the Australian Army's efforts in Libya and"
"troops occupied Derna during the Italo-Turkish War. The Italian rule over Derna lasted 29 years, 3 months and 14 days until it was captured by Australian Troops during the Second World War's North African Campaign On 6 April 1941, German forces retook the city from the British, and on 15 November 1942, British forces recaptured it. ""See also: Derna campaign (2014–16), Siege of Derna, Battle of Derna (2018)."" In 2007, American troops in Iraq uncovered a list of foreign fighters for the Iraqi insurgency. Of the 112 Libyans on the list, 52 had come from Derna. Derna has the reputation"
"first day of fighting it become obvious what the ""Marmarica"" positions are untenable, therefore the retreat was made to stronghold of Bardia-Abyār ar Rujm - Zawiyat al Manestir - Bi’r al Ghirrīdīyah. The ""Marmarica"" had settled on the new defensive positions 16 December 1940. On 3 January 1941, the British resumed the offensive, resulting in Battle of Bardia. As the Allied forces advanced, several large Italian units were surrounded, cut off from supply, and defeated. After some hard fighting, one position after another surrendered. The Australians captured Bardia on 5 January, taking 45,000 prisoners and 462 guns for a loss"
"end of 6 December the Australians besieged and took Bardia along with 40,000 more prisoners and 400 guns. In early January 1941, the Western Desert Force was redesignated XIII Corps. On 9 January, the offensive resumed. By 12 January the strategic fortress port of Tobruk was surrounded. On 22 January it fell and another 27,000 Italian POWs were taken along with valuable supplies, food, and weapons. As Tobruk fell it was decided to have XIII Corps answerable directly to Wavell at HQ Middle East Command, removing HQ British troops Egypt from the chain of command. On 26 January the remaining"
"port in the capital. In the second half of 1940, Italian troops invaded British Somaliland and ejected the British. The Italians also occupied areas bordering Jubaland around the villages of Moyale and Buna. However, Britain retained control of the almost exclusively Somali-inhabited Northern Frontier District. In the spring of 1941, Britain regained control of British Somaliland and conquered Italian Somaliland with the Ogaden after some months of bloody fighting in all Italian East Africa. However, until the summer of 1943, there was an Italian guerrilla war in all the areas of the former Italian East Africa. During the Second World"
"to the Sudan to participate in the East African Campaign. Major General Iven Mackay's 6th Australian Division was brought forward from Egypt to replace it. Mackay assumed command of the area on 21 December 1940. Unlike the Great Sand Sea, the coastal portion of the Libyan Desert is stony rather than sandy, but it is no less arid, and supports little vegetation. Close to the coast, the ground was broken by wadis. Military vehicles could traverse the stony desert with little difficulty, although the heat, dust and wind caused their rapid deterioration. Because it was so thinly populated, bombs and"